About

Dr. Shaochen Chen is a Professor and Chair in the NanoEngineering Department and a Professor in the Bioengineering Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is the founding co-director of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Center at UCSD. Prior to his current roles, Dr. Chen served as a Professor and Henderson Centennial Endowed Faculty Fellow in Engineering in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin from 2001 to 2010. Between 2008 and 2010, he was the Program Director for the Nanomanufacturing Program of the US National Science Foundation (NSF). His research focuses on 3D printing and bioprinting, biomaterials and nanomaterials, stem cell and regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering. His work explores cell-material interactions across various physical, temporal, and biological dimensions, addressing fundamental scientific issues as well as technological and translational challenges related to tissue and organ repair and regeneration. Dr. Chen has received numerous awards including the NSF CAREER award, the ONR Young Investigator award, and the NIH Edward Nagy New Investigator Award. He was honored with the Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 2017 for his contributions to 3D printing, bioprinting, and nanomanufacturing. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Inventors and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a Fellow of AAAS, AIMBE, ASME, SPIE, and ISNM. In 2022, he was recognized as a BRITE fellow of NSF to advance 3D bio-nano-manufacturing techniques. Dr. Chen is also a founder of Allegro 3D, Inc., which commercializes 3D bioprinting technologies.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Biology
• Computational biology
• Biomedical engineering
• Artificial Intelligence
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Genetics
• Medicine
• Engineering
• Biotechnology
• Mechanical engineering
• Cell biology
• Neuroscience
• Immunology
• Cancer research
• Chemistry
• Biophysics

Selected publications

• Phenotypically complex living materials containing engineered cyanobacteria

  Nature Communications · 2023 · 66 citations

  • Computational biology
  • Biology
  • Genetics

  The field of engineered living materials lies at the intersection of materials science and synthetic biology with the aim of developing materials that can sense and respond to the environment. In this study, we use 3D printing to fabricate a cyanobacterial biocomposite material capable of producing multiple functional outputs in response to an external chemical stimulus and demonstrate the advantages of utilizing additive manufacturing techniques in controlling the shape of the fabricated photosynthetic material. As an initial proof-of-concept, a synthetic riboswitch is used to regulate the expression of a yellow fluorescent protein reporter in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 within a hydrogel matrix. Subsequently, a strain of S. elongatus is engineered to produce an oxidative laccase enzyme; when printed within a hydrogel matrix the responsive biomaterial can decolorize a common textile dye pollutant, indigo carmine, potentially serving as a tool in environmental bioremediation. Finally, cells are engineered for inducible cell death to eliminate their presence once their activity is no longer required, which is an important function for biocontainment and minimizing environmental impact. By integrating genetically engineered stimuli-responsive cyanobacteria in volumetric 3D-printed designs, we demonstrate programmable photosynthetic biocomposite materials capable of producing functional outputs including, but not limited to, bioremediation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Three-dimensional bioprinted glioblastoma microenvironments model cellular dependencies and immune interactions

  Cell Research · 2020 · 275 citations

  • Biology
  • Neuroscience
  • Computational biology

  Brain tumors are dynamic complex ecosystems with multiple cell types. To model the brain tumor microenvironment in a reproducible and scalable system, we developed a rapid three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting method to construct clinically relevant biomimetic tissue models. In recurrent glioblastoma, macrophages/microglia prominently contribute to the tumor mass. To parse the function of macrophages in 3D, we compared the growth of glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) alone or with astrocytes and neural precursor cells in a hyaluronic acid-rich hydrogel, with or without macrophage. Bioprinted constructs integrating macrophage recapitulate patient-derived transcriptional profiles predictive of patient survival, maintenance of stemness, invasion, and drug resistance. Whole-genome CRISPR screening with bioprinted complex systems identified unique molecular dependencies in GSCs, relative to sphere culture. Multicellular bioprinted models serve as a scalable and physiologic platform to interrogate drug sensitivity, cellular crosstalk, invasion, context-specific functional dependencies, as well as immunologic interactions in a species-matched neural environment.

  DOI

• Direct 3D bioprinting of cardiac micro-tissues mimicking native myocardium

  Biomaterials · 2020 · 139 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Materials science
  • Biomedical engineering
  • Biophysics
  DOI

• Photopolymerizable Biomaterials and Light-Based 3D Printing Strategies for Biomedical Applications

  Chemical Reviews · 2020 · 532 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Artificial Intelligence

  Since the advent of additive manufacturing, known commonly as 3D printing, this technology has revolutionized the biofabrication landscape and driven numerous pivotal advancements in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Many 3D printing methods were developed in short course after Charles Hull first introduced the power of stereolithography to the world. However, materials development was not met with the same enthusiasm and remained the bottleneck in the field for some time. Only in the past decade has there been deliberate development to expand the materials toolbox for 3D printing applications to meet the true potential of 3D printing technologies. Herein, we review the development of biomaterials suited for light-based 3D printing modalities with an emphasis on bioprinting applications. We discuss the chemical mechanisms that govern photopolymerization and highlight the application of natural, synthetic, and composite biomaterials as 3D printed hydrogels. Because the quality of a 3D printed construct is highly dependent on both the material properties and processing technique, we included a final section on the theoretical and practical aspects behind light-based 3D printing as well as ways to employ that knowledge to troubleshoot and standardize the optimization of printing parameters.

  DOI

• Noninvasive in vivo 3D bioprinting

  Science Advances · 2020 · 304 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Computational biology

  Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has great potential in advancing clinical medicine. Currently, the in vivo application strategies for 3D-printed macroscale products are limited to surgical implantation or in situ 3D printing at the exposed trauma, both requiring exposure of the application site. Here, we show a digital near-infrared (NIR) photopolymerization (DNP)-based 3D printing technology that enables the noninvasive in vivo 3D bioprinting of tissue constructs. In this technology, the NIR is modulated into customized pattern by a digital micromirror device, and dynamically projected for spatially inducing the polymerization of monomer solutions. By ex vivo irradiation with the patterned NIR, the subcutaneously injected bioink can be noninvasively printed into customized tissue constructs in situ. Without surgery implantation, a personalized ear-like tissue constructs with chondrification and a muscle tissue repairable cell-laden conformal scaffold were obtained in vivo. This work provides a proof of concept of noninvasive in vivo 3D bioprinting.

  DOI

Recent grants

• EAGER: Cybermanufacturing: Cloud-based, Rapid, Microscale 3D Bioprinting

  NSF · $142k · 2015–2018

• Rapid 3D-printing of Multi-functional Adaptive Nerve Conduits

  NIH · $1.1M · 2017–2023

• Studying Nanotoxicity Using Bioprinted Human Liver Tissues

  NIH · $398k · 2022–2025

• Pre-clinical validation of 3D-printed nerve conduits for pediatric peripheral nerve repair

  NIH · $2.4M · 2023–2028

• NIH Grant R21HD100132

  NIH · $656k · 2022

Frequent coauthors

• Wei Zhu

  Jiangsu University

  47 shared

• Claire Yu

  University of California, San Diego

  31 shared

• Maling Gou

  30 shared

• Xuanyi Ma

  Scripps Clinic

  28 shared

• Shangting You

  Zhejiang Lab

  27 shared

• Pengrui Wang

  Aviation General Hospital

  26 shared

• Pranav Soman

  24 shared

• Daniel Wangpraseurt

  University of California, San Diego

  22 shared

Labs

• Chen LabPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

• B.S.

  University of Texas at Austin

Awards & honors

• Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal from the America…
• NSF CAREER award
• ONR Young Investigator award
• NIH Edward Nagy New Investigator Award
• BRITE fellow of NSF (2022)

Similar researchers at University of California, San Diego

• Ronald M. Evansh-300
• Rob Knighth-297
• Michael (Geoff) Rosenfeldh-224
• Don W. Clevelandh-213
• Anders M Daleh-209